From: Robert Emond
Subject: Errata
MA> It is beyond me why someone would believe 14-year-olds' attitudes
MA> about sexuality, when many of them don't know the first thing
MA> about sexuality - let alone rape - are really significant in
MA> studies or surveys like the one you mention.
.
First of all 14 year olds can rape, and if they think it is OK we
have a problem. Secondly, many of these attitudes will not change,
granted some boys will change there point of view, but others will
not. This is a problem because, the larger the group rape is OK
believers, the greater the peer pressure and the harder it becomes
for these boys to change their attitudes. Finally this is just
*one* of the many manifestations of our society's view of the
acceptability of rape.
A study by S. Vinogradov et al., _Patterns of Behavior in
Adolescent Rape_ in American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 58(2) April
1989 pp. 179-87, studied 63 adolescent rapists between 14 and 21
years old with a mean of 16. Two of the rapists had committed 2
rapes and one had committed 3 rapes for a total of 67 rape episodes.
They received no benefits for participating in the study.
Drugs and alcohol are a major factor. They found that 71% of the
rapes were committed while under the influence of one or more
controlled substance, and 15% had taken the drug less than 15 minutes
before the rape. Often it is assumed that the victim brings about
the rape some how (dressing sexually, or acting in a provocative
manner). However, 88% of the rapists said that their victims were
not particularly sexy or attractive. They also reported that the
victims did not act in a provocative manner.
They found:
21% of the rapes were premeditated.
27% were committed while another crime was being committed.
22% after the rapists engaged social discourse.
16% were, "purely impulsive and spontaneous; the victim was
simply an easily available 'innocent bystander'".
7% after an argument with the victim.
6% after sexual foreplay i.e. date rape.
The findings show that the majority of adolescent rapists will rape
while under the influence of drugs/alcohol, they will not have set
out to rape a woman, it is purely opportunistic (well as long as I'm
talking to/or robbing her I might as well rape her too, was a
prevalent attitude). They also found that many of the rapes involved
more than one assailant being present, even if they did not rape the
victim as well.